Longtime Israel critic Cynthia McKinney is the Green Party nominee for president. McKinney, whose father famously blamed the loss of her House of Representatives seat in 2002 on the “J-E-W-S,” was nominated at the party’s convention last month in Chicago. In her acceptance speech, published in a Washington alternative newspaper, she called for a new investigation of the 9/11 attacks and ending U.S. involvement in Iraq. She said that “if Green Party values were now reflected in U.S. public policy” there “would be peace in the Middle East based on self-determination, respect for human rights and justice.” McKinney is remembered among Israel supporters for asking a Saudi prince for the $10 million in disaster relief he had pledged to the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, after then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had rejected the money because the prince had criticized U.S. support of Israel. She lost her Atlanta-area congressional seat in 2002 after five terms to a Democratic primary opponent, Denise Majette, who received support from pro-Israel donors.She won it back two years later after Majette unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate, but lost again in the primary in 2006. McKinney, whose running mate Rosa Clemente is described in media reports as a “hip-hop activist,” received less than 1 percent of the vote nationally in a Gallup poll released Tuesday. Ralph Nader ran as the Green Party nominee in 2000 and is seen by many Democrats as costing Al Gore the election. Nader is running again this year as an independent, along with another former Georgia member of the House Representaives, Bob Barm, who is representing the Libertarian Party.
Israel’s tennis players were eliminated from the Beijing Olympics.
Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram, the third-seeded men’s doubles team with perhaps the best chance at a medal among the Israelis on the court, were upset Tuesday by the unseeded tandem of Arnaud Clement and Llodra Michael of France, 6-4, 6-4, in their first-round match.
Erlich and Ram had beaten the Frenchmen in January in the Australian Open final to give Israel its first Grand Slam title.
Also Tuesday, Tzipora Obziler fell to Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, in a grueling three-hour women’s singles match. The deciding set lasted an hour, 6 minutes.
That same evening, Obziler and Shahar Peer dropped a women’s double match, 6-3, 6-2, to Gisela Dulko and Betina Jozami of Argentina.
Peer, the 24th seed in women’s singles, was eliminated in the second round Monday by Russia’s Vera Zvonareva, 6-3, 7-6. The second set took 1:11.
Peer had won her first-round match, 6-3, 5-7, 6-0, over Sorana Cirstea of Romania.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
